Angie

Angie is the resident foodie of Living the Dream. She seeks out local food, restaurants, farmers markets, and cooking classes wherever she travels. Angie has been on one long-term trip of 465 days along with her husband Jeremy.

The Conrad Maldives Rangali is full of over-the-top dining experiences, but perhaps the most extravagant is Ithaa. Ithaa is an underwater restaurant situated five meters below the surface where you can dine surrounded by views of coral and fish. Options for dining include a four-course set menu lunch, a seven-course set menu dinner, or a mid-morning champagne hour.

As you might imagine, the prices for this once in a lifetime experience are steep. The champagne hour will set you back $85, lunch is $220 per person, while dinner will run you a cool $330 per person (and these prices are all before taxes and fees which are an extra 22%).

We decided to take a middle of the road approach and have lunch at Ithaa. Note that reservations are required, but on the day we dined only three out of the seven tables were full.

The Conrad Maldives Rangali has more than a dozen different restaurants and dining experiences, and as you might expect for such a luxurious island resort, none of them are cheap. We tried six different restaurants and dining experiences during our recent stay, and we came away with a few favorites that stood out from the rest.

Here we outline our opinions on the restaurants at which we dined, and which meals we think were worth the splurge.

Wine Bar George is a restaurant and bar located in Disney Springs that was started by Master Sommelier George Miliotes. With a variety of small plates and charcuterie boards, a large selection of wines by the glass, and exceptional service, Wine Bar George is a must-visit Disney-area spot if you're at all into wine.

The French Laundry in Yountville, CA, is a three-Michelin-starred restaurant that is notoriously hard to get a reservation for. Because we love food and love experiencing travel destinations via food, we knew we had to at least try to get a French Laundry reservation on our recent trip to check out Sonoma and Napa Valley wineries.

We ended up being successful, so we wanted to share our tips for landing a coveted spot, as well as a general review of the meal and experience.

The hype around getting reservations for The French Laundry is pretty intense. But we found that if you understand the process, can plan far in advance, and are somewhat flexible in your dining date and time, a reservation is fairly easily attainable.

As with all posts on this site, the following is based on our visit date in early 2019. The booking process is liable to change.